Frank Burlison

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Unlike many of his counterparts, Harvard-Westlake boys’ basketball coach David Rebibo didn’t send his team into “fall league” competition until a few weeks ago.

But when the 2023-24 Wolverines did take the court, notably at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas (the Oct. 13-15 Border League); at St. Francis  in La Canada (the Oct. 20 Beat Cancer Challenge) and, this past Saturday, at Heritage Christian in Northridge (the Core Prep Fall Classic), they made this abundantly clear with the “real” season set to start on Nov.

[Click to continue reading]

REDONDO BEACH — Redondo Union High will play host to Saturday and Sunday’s boys’ basketball Take Flight Challenge, with 25 varsity and lower-level games scheduled for the school’s two gymnasiums.

Four programs that participated in the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs last season — eventual state Open (Harvard-Westlake) and Division I (Sherman Oaks Notre Dame) championships, joined by St. Bernard and Bishop Montgomery) are part of the weekend field.

Also in the field is CIF SS D-5AA champion Bosco Tech, which opens action Saturday morning at 9 o’clock against Notre Dame.

[Click to continue reading]

LAS VEGAS – Many of the nation’s high school and prep school basketballs stars were in alignment over the past weekend during The Border League.

And — as anticipated —the largest constellation shined ever-so-brightly for Florida-based, prep school powerhouse Montverde Academy.

Sunday night the Eagles blasted to a 16-point advantage at intermission then withstood a Boozer-brother led rally and held off Miami’s Columbus High, 83-77, at Bishop Gorman High for the championship of the eight-team, GEICO Top Flight Invitational division.

The division also included four other “traditional high school” programs in Bishop Gorman, Coronado (in near-by Henderson), SoCal powerhouse Harvard-Westlake and Arlington (VA) O’Connell, along with two other prep-school powers in Napa (CA) Prolific Prep and Chandler (AZ) Compass Prep.

[Click to continue reading]

LAS VEGAS — Championships in seven of the events nine divisions — and showcase games in the other two — are on tap for Sunday’s final day of The Border League at Bishop Gorman and other sites within an 18-or so-mile radius of the campus.

Of course, all the games since Friday’s action began have been showcases:

No. 1,  for the teams’ coaches, to give them an idea of what they need to improve upon and polish as the real season rapidly approaches.

No. 2, for a lot of college coaches to evaluate the players involved and — often — to be seen by a lot of those players as a remainder to the kids that they think enough of them to how much those coaches’ programs want to sign them to letters of intent next month, and finally:

No.

[Click to continue reading]

LAS VEGAS — The collective four-best boys’ basketball players in the Classes of 2024, ’25 and ’26 will be on the same court over a three-hour period Saturday evening at Bishop Gorman High.

The championship semifinals of The Border League will be played at 4:30 (Napa, CA, Prolific Prep vs. Miami Columbus) and 6:15 (Montverde, FL, Prep vs. Chandler, AZ, Compass Prep), respectively, on the school’s main gymnasium floor.

Montverde (aka in this event, “The Florida Eagles) starts a lineup of strong candidates for the 2024 McDonald’s All-American team, including center Derik Queen (originally from the Baltimore area), forward Liam McNeeley (by way of the Dallas metro area) and point guard Rob Wright (Philadelphia).

[Click to continue reading]